It’s a short uphill hike to the lower cliff dwellings of the Tonto National Monument located just outside Theodore Roosevelt Lake in Arizona.

Built in the 14th Century, the site is one of the last cliff dwellings of the Salado people in the Southwest. Sheltered in large cave overhang, the lower dwellings contain about a dozen rooms made of quartzite rocks bonded with adobe laster and accented with sycamore wood and saguaro cactus ribs.

Tonto National Monument also has an upper cliff dwellings site that is available only through guided tours with a reservation.

Tucked into the gorges outside of Billings, past an antenna farm on the top of a flat hill and down a winding road lurk three caves with a past the predates recorded history.

Beginning somewhere around 250 B.C., inhabitants of what would later become southern Montana drew rudimentary scenes of daily life on the natural shelters’ walls. The pictures eventually faded but would sometimes return when conditions — humidity and such — were right, and tribes thousands of years later would conclude they were messages from beyond — ghost writings.

Today, the Pictograph Cave complex (known in the Crow language as Alahpalaaxawaalaatuua for “place of spirit writings”) is a state park, and for a nominal fee ($6 per carload of out-of staters or $0 per carload of Big Sky Country residents) visitors can take a short hike to the caverns and take in the prehistoric artwork. The best pieces are at the flagship Pictograph Cave, nestled into the eagle sandstone cliffs. The park service includes a guide showing the location of the images superimposed on a photo of the wall. I also found it helpful to use a set of binoculars (I just happened to have a set in my backpack) to observe from a respectable distance.

There is something that appears to be a warrior with a round shield, and there are animals. More recent art (estimated between 1480 and 1650 A.D.) in red pigments stands out year round and depict items like flintlock rifles. Some 100 images have been documented, and on the average day only about 10 are visible. With the right circumstances, 30 or 40 appear, according to park officials.

Also in the complex are Ghost Cave and the aptly named Middle Cave (between the other two caves).

Middle Cave.

Flintlock rifles and hash marks in Pictograph Cave.

Middle Cave.

Park description shows ages of items found at the Pictograph Cave complex.

From the distance, it looked like something out of Lord of the Rings — a dark, impossibly tall tower looming in the foothills, perhaps a wizard’s stronghold crowned by a fiery floating eye or something will later be attacked by humanoid tree creatures.

The tower was visible from miles away as we traveled through the valleys of western Montana on our journey. As we neared the stone giant, and after miles of guessing its origin and purpose, we happened upon a rest stop with a display that answered the riddle.

The structure is the remaining smoke stack of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company smelter that was left standing as a testimony to the workers after the rest of the 100-year-old facility was torn down in 1986. At 585 feet tall, the stack is the highest masonry structure in the world, passing the Washington Monument by 29 1/2 feet. Fitting, as the operation was once the largest non-iron smelter in the world.

During a long day of driving, we took a mandatory waterfall break at Falls Park, located on the north end of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The site features a series of falls where the Big Sioux River cascades over pink quartzite cliffs. There are the remains of the Queen Bee Mill, which was built in the 1880s and shuttered after a few short years in operation, and a former hydroelectric plant that had a longer run, cranking out power from 1908 until 1974. The power plant now houses a cafe. An observation tower and gift shop complete the scene.

Some of the favorite parts of our travels involve passing through mountains. On clear days, there are panoramic views of the expansive country below. And the views are just as stunning in foul weather with clouds obscuring the peaks and mists hiding the valleys below.

These photos were taken while driving through clouds while crossing from northern Idaho into Montana.

We found this phone booth at a rest area in eastern Washington state during our cross-country road trip. A relic of wired communication in a wireless age. The booth has no phone, but it has a light that is hooked up to the grid. The rest area was also trying to sell pop for $3.

It wouldn’t be a trip through Yellowstone without a stop at the geysers, thermal pools, hot springs and other volcanic features. My shots of Old Faithful weren’t the great because the steamy eruption blended in with the overcast day. But here are shots of a pool boiling away in the Old Faithful area and Mammoth Hot Springs.